Arizona Defunds Community College
By I know Arizona is run by a bunch of loons, but even I was surprised by the state completely defunding several community colleges. Although actually the real story is not the defunding from $7 million in 2015 to $0 in 2016, but from $45 million in 2011 to $6 million in 2012. The upshot of this is not the closure of the community colleges but rather their semi-privatization, as they move directly to serving the specific whims of corporations.
Previous budget cuts have been the catalyst behind Maricopa Corporate College, which caters to companies looking to train employees. The companies, which include Amazon, Ford Motors, Marriott International, Nissan and the City of Phoenix, pay the colleges for training and courses.
That’s the sort of “entrepreneurial” thinking that community college leaders must do as states cut their budgets, Bumphus said.
“We definitely saw this [coming] and we’ve been planning on this day,” Maricopa Chancellor Rufus Glasper said.
This probably is the future of many public 4-year institutions as well, as the pretense that universities are anything more than the training ground for capitalist functionaries disappears.